Memories stolen from a Lakewood family about 10 years ago, were returned after a police officer reached out to TLS.

Several days ago, Lakewood Police Officer Joseph Sandstrom was relocating and moving files in the property and evidence department of the LPD, when he came across a camera which was recovered from a burglary in 2007. It was placed into evidence and put on a shelf at the time as no owners were able to be found.

Now, years later, Officer Sandstrom decided to try and find the rightful owner, and took out the memory card and loaded the files. On the card, were hundreds of family photos and memories the family surely wishes they had.

“I just felt that I know I would love to have it back, so maybe they would too,” Sandstrom said.

About 15 seconds after sending the photo to our reporters, the family was identified!

We reached out to the family, who immediately remembered having the camera stolen, and thanked us profusely for reuniting them with the memories.

“We never developed those photos!” the family said. “I remembered that it was stolen from my car. I figured it was gone forever so I moved on.”

As for the officer, he considers stories like these rewarding.

“This is why I do this job,” Officer Sandstrom said. “I can’t change the world, but making a difference in just one person’s life is so rewarding.”

Officer Sandstrom was the officer who in 2014 saved an osprey tangled in a tree – gaining him the nickname ‘Hawkstrom’. (That TLS story went viral and was shared on media outlets and viral video sites around the globe.)

[TLS]